First Sunday of Advent Year B

Hymnal #767

Saturday, 29 November

3:30 pm … Confession & Reconciliation

4 pm … Kay Houston by Margaret-Ann Moran

Sunday, 30 November First Sunday of Advent

7:30 am … Suzanne Tremblay by Lionel & Lillian Coulon

9:30 am … Luke Dambach (5th Anniv.) by Chris, Joe and

Jack Dambach

4:30 pm … Confession & Reconciliation

5 pm … Our Parish Family

Monday, 1 December

12 pm … Robert J. Hughes by Estella Hughes & Family

Tuesday, 2 December

12 pm … Katherine (Day) Corriveau by P. Jerome

Wednesday, 3 December Saint Francis Xavier

11:30 am … Confession & Reconciliation

12 pm … Virginia (Armstrong) Knight by Virginia Murphy

Thursday, 4 December Saint John Damascene

8:30 am … Sr. Anita Blier, HRSJ, by P. Jerome

Friday, 5 December

5:30 pm … Confession & Reconciliation

6 pm … William & Phyllis Wisneski by Teresa Greene

Saturday, 6 December Saint Nicholas

3:30 pm … Confession & Reconciliation

4 pm … Thomas M. Welch (2nd Anniv.) by Maryann & Kent

Ericson

Sunday, 7 December Second Sunday of Advent

7:30 am … Mikola Sroda by Lionel & Lillian Coulon

9:30 am … Irene Narkey by Teresa Greene

4:30 pm … Confession & Reconciliation

5 pm … Louis & Margaret DiGiovani by Dave & Nancy Bregar

Worship Schedule

Sanctuary candle The sanctuary candle burns this

week for Sarto & Flora Myre by their daughter and

family.

Sunday, 30 November

9:20 am … Children’s Religious Ed—Parish Hall

10:30 am … Coffee and Doughnuts—Parish Hall

10:45 am … Catholic Faith Explained—SBA Library

Monday, 1 December

6—7:30 pm … Youth Ministry/Grades 6-8—

Library

7—8 pm Food Pantry

Tuesday, 2 December 6:30—8 pm … Youth Ministry/Grades 9-12

7 pm … Advent Evening of Reflection—Church

Saturday, 6 December

9—11 am … Children’s Adoration—Chapel

9 am—3:30 pm … Women’s Retreat, Joseph

House, 279 Cartier St., Manchester

Thank you! We appreciate the help of every-

one who stepped up last weekend to carry a flag in our ‘Procession of the Nations’ at the 9:30 am

Mass, as well as the assistance of the Dambach

and Gillooly families for the delicious brunch that followed.

Sunday’S Word year B

Lectors, Year B lectionaries are

available for you to pick up in

the sacristy. Thank you for all

you do!

Nearly 50 Thanksgiving baskets, complete with a turkey, were delivered to families last Tuesday night, thanks to the Saint Raphael High School Youth Ministry and their parents who kindly helped drive. Other baskets were picked up at the rectory. We greatly appreciate the work of the high school students in putting the baskets to-gether. We also extend heartfelt appreciation to the Comeau Family of Bedford again for their gener-ous contribution, as well as to other parishioners, whose monetary and food donations made the Thanksgiving basket project possible. You are all truly a blessing to us!

Nursing Home and Homebound greetings Please remember our SRP parishion-

ers and friends in nursing homes or

homebound by sending them a holiday greeting

card. Pamphlets with names and addresses are in

the Information Nook at the main entrance. Thank

you for your thoughtfulness!

Our thanks, once again, to Durn-

ing, Bykowski & Young Funeral

Home, Manchester, for our 2015

calendars. Please help yourself to

a calendar from the box in the Information Nook.

Daily Reflec-tions for Ad-vent & Christ-mas Booklets

are available in the nook for $2.

Welcome to the First

Sunday of Advent

2014, the opening of a

new liturgical year and

the beginning of our

preparation for the great celebration of

the birth of Christ! This is one of my fa-

vorite times of the year, partly because of

the many beautiful customs associated

with this season, partly because Advent

calls for a “beginning anew” frame of

mind and partly because Advent invites us

to begin a kind of pilgrimage. It is this

sense of

“pilgrimage” that

I will consider

for the next few

weeks.

In our society,

many of us must

travel frequently.

We commute,

sometimes a fair distance, for work. Our

families and friends are scattered in var-

ious parts of the U.S. and even abroad. My

nieces and their families are to be found on

both sides of Massachusetts, southern and

central Vermont and southern Maine, so I

count myself lucky that we are all still all

relatively proximate in New England.

Even getting our families through the week

involves a fair bit of travel to school,

sports and social engagements.

Few, if any, of our journeys have a spir-

itual purpose, however, and that, of

course, is what a pilgrimage is all about. It

is travel in which both the destination

and, even more, the journey itself is

meant to have an impact on the pilgrim’s

mind and heart. The pilgrim is summoned

to experience a conversion, or a “turning

away from” and a “turning toward” for the

sake of increased faith, hope and love.

Over the centuries, Catholics have under-

taken pilgrimages to the great historical

centers of Christian faith: to Jerusalem

and elsewhere in Israel, as the Holy Land

where the Lord Jesus was born, lived,

taught, suffered and died; to Rome, where

Saints Peter and Paul established them-

selves at the center of the Roman Empire,

and where Peter’s successors as bishop,

built up the ancient Church; and to Anti-

och, Alexandria and Constantinople,

where ancient sister churches to Rome,

grew, all of them producing martyrs and

other saints whose holiness and learning

illumined and helped shape the emergence

of the Christianity we know. Later, Chris-

tian pilgrimage

would also

look to places

such as Can-

terbury in

England and

Santiago de

Campostela in

Spain, as well

as the great

Marian shrines

of Lourdes in

France, Fatima in Portugal, Czestochowa

in Poland and elsewhere.

For men and women of faith, pilgrimage

provides not only a physical but also a

temporal, moral and emotional sense of

movement. In other words, the pilgrim

goes from one frame of mind to another –

and the experience of pilgrimage helps

make that passage happen. For example,

one leaves the secular world of buying and

selling, market competition, one-

upmanship and scheduling and enters a

world of peace, tranquility and reflec-

tion. One turns one’s back on excessive

self-preoccupation, self-exaltation and self

-satisfaction to enter into a time of con-

cern for others, humility and sacrifice.

In many respects, pilgrimage is always

centered on the “other,” and the greatest

Other is God himself! Our Catholic faith

provides us with Advent and Lent as two

important temporal examples of pilgrim-

age to prepare us for Christmas and Easter.

Advent actually does not confine itself to

preparing for the annual commemoration

of the historical Christmas, important as

the Nativity of the Lord is. Advent reminds

us that just as Christ came once in history

with his historical birth 2,000 years ago

in Bethlehem in Judea in the Roman prov-

ince of Palestine, once the ancient king-

dom of Israel, so too Christ will come

again at the end of the ages to judge us

and subject all things in this world to him-

self and, then, to present everything to his

Eternal Father.

For the faithful Christian, between the

first historical coming in the Incarnation

and Nativity of the Lord and the Second

Coming, the “eschatological” one “at the

end of the ages,” there is a third and deeply

personal coming, a kind of “mystical com-

ing.” It is the willingness of each believer

to welcome the Lord Jesus into his life –

just as did the Blessed Virgin Mary – so

that the will, the intellect and the emotions

are transformed in his grace. The process

of conversion draws

us ever deeper into

the mystery of di-

vine love. We can

experience this com-

ing in Sacrament,

especially the Eu-

charist, and Word.

Over the years,

I’ve been privileged

to make pilgrimages

to a number of plac-

es – Jerusalem and Rome, the most promi-

nent sites and among the most affecting

places I have visited. Having said that,

however, four other pilgrimage sites have

been particularly moving for me: Canter-

bury, places in Ireland, Iona in Scotland,

the Benedictine sites of Italy and Montreal.

They will be discussed in an upcoming

column this Advent, as will the pilgrimage

to Santiago de Compostela by parishioner

Roger Joly, who will share his reflections.

This Advent, I hope many of our Saint

Raphael parishioners and friends will con-

sider making these four weeks of prepa-

ration a kind of pilgrimage. In many ways,

our lives are a journey. We move through

the ups and downs, joys and sorrows, op-

portunities and challenges from birth to

death and return to the Lord. Just as in a

traditional pilgrimage to a specific loca-

tion, the experiences, the personal insights

and the various individuals one meets

along the journey of life develop mean-

ing. No less important to any pilgrimage is

the destination, which shapes the prepara-

tion and understanding for the journey.

This Advent time of preparation before

Christmas allows us to journey with an-

cient Israel, as the prophets prepared for

the birth of the Messiah, to travel with the

gospel writers as the early Church reflect-

ed on Christ’s identity and to wait with

poets and thinkers of every age pondering

the mystery of divine love.

I hope each of us makes room each day,

every day during these four weeks to con-

sider where we want to be spiritually by

Christmas, what we might do in terms of

quiet, prayer and charity to get there, how

we treat the people we encounter in our

families, workplaces and communities and

who, ultimately, we travel to discover. The

secret, of course, of every Christian pil-

grimage is that we can find him with every

step of the journey! © Rev. Jerome Joseph Day, O.S.B.

From the Pastor: Father Jerome Joseph Day, O.S.B.

Advent offers us a chance to go on a personal pilgrimage with, to and for Christ

November 23, 2014

Offertory Regular $ 3,710.00

Offertory Make-Up $ 661.00

Offertory Loose $ 616.65

Offertory Online Giving $ 195.00

Total: $ 5,182.65

Stewardship $ 150.00

All Saints Day $ 35.00

Food Pantry $ 640.00

Thank you for your generosity!

November 30, 2014

Saint Raphael Food Pantry This past Monday, November 24, the Food Pantry served 52 families, and gave out 82 bags of groceries. We need

cereal, canned fruit, canned vegetables, and brown paper and plastic shopping bags. Also, gently used blankets, any size, would be appreciated! Thank you!

Readings for the week of November 30, 2014

Monday: Rv 1:1-4; 2:1-5; Ps 1:1-4, 6; Lk 18:35-43

Tuesday: Rv 3:1-6, 14-22; Ps 15:2-5; Lk 19:1-10, or, (for the

memorial of the Dedication) Acts 28:11-16, 30-31; Ps 98:1-6;

Mt 14:22-33

Wednesday: Rv 4:1-11; Ps 150:1b-6; Lk 19:11-28

Thursday: Rv 5:1-10; Ps 149:1b-6a, 9b; Lk 19:41-44

Friday: Rv 10:8-11; Ps 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131; Lk

19:45-48

Thanks to parishioners and friends, who

have donated to Catholic Charities,

we have raised $20,865 of SRP’s goal of

$30,000. Thanks to a generous friend

contributions in Oct. and Nov. will be matched. We

are this close! Help us reach the goal!

Welcomed into the Catholic church, through

the waters of baptism, administered by P. Je-

rome, O.S.B., pastor, were James Patrick Ar-

thur Belbin, son of Kenneth and Alicia

(Magee) Belbin, on Nov. 9, and Audrey Den-

ise Abel, daughter of Brad and Cheryl (Auger)

Abel, on Nov. 23. P. Benedict Guevin, O.S.B.,

of Saint Anselm Abbey, participated in the Belbin baptism.

SAINT

RAPHAEL

FILM FESTIVAL—Thank you to

those who attended our first two movies in ‘The Poppies Still Bloom: Remembering World War I.’ The remaining films will be shown at a later date due to conflicting holiday commitments for many attendees.

The Bedford Youth Performing

Company, at The Derryfield School

Theatre, 2108 River Road, Man-

chester, presents The Best Christ-

mas Pageant Ever, based on the

book written by Barbara Robinson.

Reserved seats (group seating available) - $12.50 for

adults, $10.50 for students and seniors. Please call

603.472.3894 to reserve your tickets. Shows are Friday,

Dec. 5 at 7pm and Saturday, Dec. 6 at 1pm. More info

can be found at www.bypc.org.

Every year, Trinity High School puts on a Breakfast with Santa for children in the area. Along with breakfast and pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus, students

provide arts and crafts and Christmas cookie deco-rating for the youngsters. This year Breakfast with Santa will be Saturday, Dec. 13 from 8-11 am in the cafeteria at Trinity, 581 Bridge St., Manches-ter. The event is free of charge; donations to stu-dent council are gladly accepted.

Remembering a SRP vet We ex-

tend our thanks to Trinity High School,

Manchester, and its Campus Ministry

program for remembering Raymond

Charles Mroczynski Jr., a parishioner

of Saint Raphael, in their breakfast for

veterans Nov. 11. Raymond served

once in Berlin in 1961 and in the Vietnam War. While

in Vietnam,, he developed a blood clot on his brain and

died Feb. 26, 1969. His funeral was Mar. 12, 1969, at

Saint Raphael and he is buried at Saint Joseph Ceme-

tery, Bedford. Ray’s name is on Panel 31W, Row 75 of

the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington.

May his soul rest in peace. Trinity also presented SRP

with an encased U.S. flag.

103 Walker Street, Manchester, NH 03102

Tel. 603 623-2604 E-mail secretary@saint-raphael-parish.com

An Advent Evening

of Music & Meditation Tuesday, December 2, 2014—7PM

Join us for our annual Service of Lessons & Carols tradition.

All are welcome! Prepare for Christmas!

Bring your family and friends!

Reception immediately following event downstairs.

Admission by free will offering. Wheelchair accessible!

COME AND ENJOY!

Saint Raphael Parish

www.saint-raphael-parish.com

...O Night Divine

Treasures of Our Hearts

Please join us as we prepare for the Advent season through

reflection, prayer and fellowship. Our annual Women’s Ad-

vent Retreat will be Saturday, Dec. 6 from 9 am to 3:30

pm at Joseph House (279 Cartier Street). Just as Mary, the

Blessed Mother of our Lord, treasured things in her heart, so

too do we treasure things in our hearts. God meets us

through the old and the new as we look forward to the time when Christ was born

into our world. A donation of $15 is requested to cover the cost of hospitality and

lunch. Please call the parish office at 623.2604 or email Kerri at secretary@saint-

raphael-parish.com if you plan to attend. All are welcome—bring a friend!

Advent Evening of Music & Reflection

Saint Raphael Parish will host its annual Advent Even-

ing of Reflection on Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 7 pm. We will

have a variety of musical selections from various

groups and individuals, interspersed with reflective

readings related to the Advent season. You won’t want

to miss out. Parishioners and members of the wider

community are invited to enjoy a candlelight evening of prayer and beauty. The musical pro-

gram will be accompanied by Advent readings on the model of the traditional English Ser-

vice of Lessons & Carols. Come and bring your friends to this beautiful tradition of Saint

Raphael! All are welcome!

Mary of the Nazareth the Movie Are you looking for a way to celebrate the advent season that will bring you peace and joy, then come to a viewing of the movie “Mary of Nazareth”. We are happy to announce that this wonderful movie will be shown two times in the St. Joseph school auditorium, 40 Main Street, Salem NH on Sunday Dec. 7th at 6:30 pm and again on Sunday Dec. 14th at 12:30 pm. Tickets- sold at the door- will be $10 per person, $25 max per family. You won’t be sorry you did. For more info or call 603.893.8661.